Longmont Area Economic Council chief resigns

After 14-plus years, Cody taking equivalent job with city of Thornton

LONGMONT -- John Cody has resigned as president and CEO of the Longmont Area Economic Council to become director of economic development for the city of Thornton.

Cody, who took his position in March 1999, told the executive committee of the LAEC board late last week of his decision and the full board was notified earlier this week. The resignation is effective Aug. 29.

"It's really a combination of factors, including my age, stage in my career, the opportunities presented by the city of Thornton -- things like that," Cody, who'll turn 56 this weekend, said Wednesday. "It was a difficult decision for me. I've enjoyed my time in Longmont very much."

Before joining the LAEC, Cody worked in economic development in Adams County. His education includes a master's degree in urban and regional planning.

In 2011, when Thornton was searching for someone to lead its economic development efforts, it brought Cody in to screen potential candidates. When the person Thornton hired resigned the job earlier this year, the city again asked Cody to be part of the selection process. This time, after one preliminary meeting and some soul searching, he decided it was a job he wanted to pursue.

"I'm going to be doing things I've never done before -- retail, redevelopment," Cody said. "I'm going to be the Brad Power (Longmont's economic development director) of Thornton except I'm going to have the ultimate decision. And I'm going to be responsible for primary (jobs) as well.

"I've never worked for a city government before. I've always worked for nonprofits."

In Longmont the LAEC's sole mission has been primary jobs -- those that produce goods or services locally that are sold elsewhere, bringing new money into the community.

An economic development adage is that for every primary job that is created in a community, two to three non-primary jobs are created.

Longmont has an unusual concentration of advanced technology companies, Cody has noted over the years, and those jobs typically pay an average of about $96,000 per year, roughly double the average salary in Boulder County.

One of his proudest achievements in his time in Longmont, he said, is in helping to create awareness of why primary jobs are so important to a community.

"I don't think there's any other community where you'll hear the phrase 'primary employers' uttered so many times by candidates for office," Cody said.

He said the primary job base in Thornton isn't nearly as robust as it is in the Longmont area, which presents both a challenge and opportunity for him. In Longmont, according to the LAEC's most recent quarterly report, about 210 primary employers are employing about 11,000 people.

Cody is quick to credit those who came before him to form the LAEC, or what used to be called the Economic Development Association of Longmont. But during his tenure Amgen, Seagate, DigitalGlobe, Intrado and Xilinx all opened large facilities in Longmont that employ thousands of people in total. Even Seagate's chief rival, Western Digital, decided to open an office in Longmont and that facility will top 200 employees this year.

Data storage put this area on the map years ago with IBM spinoff Storage Technology, but Longmont's national reputation as an R&D hub extends into many other high-tech industries, such as biopharma, aerospace and computer hardware and software.

Chris Treharne of Gibraltar Business Appraisals has been an LAEC board member during Cody's entire tenure.

"I think John's done a great job," Treharne said Thursday. "I think it's very unusual for a nonprofit organization, much less one that's involved in economic development, to have a president as long as we have had him, and I think that speaks well to the job that John's done for the organization. I wish him well."

Cody said he feels like he's brought stability to the LAEC over his 14-plus years -- "The two guys before me lasted 18 months each," he said -- and, with rare exceptions over the years, the organization has worked to establish a strong partnership between the city and the business community.

"Probably one of the things I'm most proud of is the relationship we have with our primary employers," Cody said. "It's much stronger than in many other places."

Until a replacement is found, Wendi Nafziger, the vice president of the LAEC who marked her 30th anniversary with the organization last year, will serve as interim director of the organization.

Nafziger noted that Cody is the seventh president she's served under, and added that he's taught her a lot, not the least of which was pushing her to earn the designation of Certified Economic Developer.

But she has no desire to put her hat in the ring for Cody's job.

"I enjoy the level of my job," Nafziger said. "I'm not as savvy or interested in the political part of the job and the No. 1 person has to do a lot of that. I just like working with the businesses and the prospects and all of that."

Cody said he's extremely grateful for the efforts of Nafziger and the LAEC's other staff member, Donna Miller.

Andy Bade of Amgen, chairman of the LAEC board of directors, is out of town and was unavailable for comment Thursday. But vice chairman Dave Humenik of Vapor Technologies said Cody's resignation came as a surprise, but he and the board understand why he would want to take on some new challenges and they wish him well. He added that they're also confident that the organization won't miss a beat while a search is being conducted for his successor.

"We're really fortunate to have a vice president like Wendi as our interim president," Humenik said. "We're very fortunate to have a person with over 30 years of economic development experience to lead this organization during this time of transition."

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